Site Activation Task Force

Interviewer:

DESCRIBE FOR ME THE ROLE
OF THE SITE ACTIVATION TASK FORCE?

Banta:

The Site Activation
Task Force is an organization put here at F.E. Warren Air Force Base to conduct the field work
related to the Peacekeeper activation. It is a multi-faceted organization, it has groups from
different parts of the Air Force that are all conglomerated here to act as the field assembly --
or the integrating contractor, if you will -- of the Peacekeeper system.

Interviewer:

WHAT IS THE TRICKIEST
PART OF THAT JOB? IT'S A PRETTY COMPLICATED...

Banta:

I think that the
trickiest part of the job of course is to make sure that all of the hardware gets here in time
to support the deployment effort, to work the schedules, because we have a multitude of
contractors working on the Peacekeeper, we have a bunch of different delivery points, a bunch of
different people that deliver hardware to the field, and we have to pull that all together and
make sure that in fact we meet our field deployment schedule.

MX and Minuteman Missiles

Interviewer:

WE WENT TO VISIT THE
TRAINING SILO AND SAW THE DUMMY MISSILE IN THERE. IT SEEMS AN INCREDIBLY SNUG FIT. WAS IT
DIFFICULT ADAPTING THE SILO TO THE MISSILE, AND DESIGNING THE MISSILE TO THE SILO? HOW COME IT'S
ABLE TO FIT SO PRECISELY IN A SILO THAT WAS BUILT FOR A DIFFERENT PURPOSE?

Banta:

The Peacekeeper
missile of course uses a different launch system than the Minuteman. It uses the cold-launch
technique where it's ejected from a canister. It was designed early on to be able to fit into an
existing Minuteman silo, and because of the fact that it uses that cold-launch technique with a
canister system it's a very adaptable missile. It would work in a multitude of different basing
modes, if you will. The silo of course was the first basing mode that we had picked for the
missile, and it was designed go into the Minuteman silo with very little modification to the
silo. You're right, it is a snug fit.

Interviewer:

SO RIGHT FROM THE
START IN THE DESIGN OF THE MISSILE. HOW FAR BACK WAS THE DESIGN SETTLED ON? THE SIZE AND SHAPE
OF THE MISSILE, AND WAS IT AT THAT TIME PLANNED THAT IT MIGHT GO INTO A MINUTEMAN
SILO?

Banta:

Yeah, the Peacekeeper
missile was really started back in the '70s as far as the design. Of course it evolved over the
years, and really was not flown until the early 1980s. But the missile was in fact originally
considered as a replacement for the Minuteman, and a lot of the design criteria that went into
the Peacekeeper was in fact to take advantage of some of the existing Minuteman
technologies.

Interviewer:

WHAT IS THE MOST
IMPORTANT DIFFERENCE?

Banta:

I think the most
important technology changes between the Peacekeeper and the Minuteman is the accuracy of the
guidance system on the Peacekeeper; and the fact that it can carry more re-entry
vehicles.

Interviewer:

WHAT IS ITS PRIMARILY
ROLE ENVISAGED AS BEING?

Banta:

I think you really
ought to address that back to my parent office -- Ballistic Missile Office -- or to SAC, who is
the operator of the system.

Interviewer:

OKAY, LET'S GET BACK
TO THE ROLE OF THE TASK FORCE, AND TRYING TO GET THAT MISSILE INTO THAT SILO. WHAT SORT OF
MODIFICATIONS DID YOU HAVE TO DO TO THE SILO? WERE THEY VERY EXTENSIVE?

Banta:

The modifications to
the Minuteman silo -- really there are several phases that we go through. One is a minor change
to the top side of the site, where we stay within the existing fence line but modify the
maneuvering area on the top of the site; there is some structural modifications to the site
where we have to change the attach points for where the canister goes into the site versus where
the Minuteman suspension system goes in; and some very minor electronic modifications to the
site -- and that's basically the extent of it.

Peacekeeper Missile Deployment

Interviewer:

HOW RAPIDLY ARE YOU
ABLE TO START ADDING MISSILES TO THE INVENTORY NOW? TO THE DEPLOYED INVENTORY.

Banta:

We're on a program
now where we're on a three and a half month cycle as far as modifying sites, so about every
three and a half months we complete a site. We have several in work at a given time.

Interviewer:

SO HOW MANY -- GIVE
ME SOME SENSE OF WHERE YOU ARE IN THE TOTAL DEPLOYMENT PHASE.

Banta:

We're approximately
halfway through the total deployment of the 50 Peacekeeper missiles.

Interviewer:

WHAT ABOUT SUBSEQUENT
MISSILES, HOW WILL THEY BE DEPLOYED?

Banta:

The subsequent basing
mode for the remaining 50 Peacekeeper missiles is the result of some study right now. The
currently proposed mode for that by President Reagan is in fact a rail garrison basing mode.
That has not been settled upon by Congress, of course.

Interviewer:

IS THAT ONE THAT'S
BEEN CONSIDERED BEFORE? YOU'RE NOT STARTING FROM SCRATCH IN TRYING TO DEVELOP THAT SYSTEM ARE
YOU?

Banta:

I, again, would like
to defer that back to Ballistic Missile Office.

Canisterized Missiles

Interviewer:

OKAY... YOU MENTIONED
THAT IT WAS A COLD-LAUNCH SYSTEM. CAN YOU TELL ME WHAT THE ADVANTAGE OF A COLD-LAUNCH SYSTEM IS,
AND JUST SPELL OUT FOR ME HOW THAT WORKS?

Banta:

Well a cold-launch
system is a system where you eject a missile from the silo, and then the engines actually ignite
above the silo -- about a hundred feet in the air is where we ignite the engines. The advantage
was it enables you to get out of a silo, that helped it to fit into the existing Minuteman silo.
It also has advantages in terms of other basing modes, where once you canisterize a missile and
put it into a launch tube, then it's very adaptable to almost any type of a launch scenario. It
gives some advantages also in terms of being able to impart some momentum to the missile before
you ignite the engines.

Interviewer:

I SEE. SO WHATEVER
BASING MODE... IS NOW USED AND MIGHT BE USED IN THE FUTURE, THE FACT THAT IT IS IN A CANISTER
MAKES IT VERY VERSATILE?

Banta:

Certainly that makes
a very adaptable missile.

Interviewer:

...COULD YOU JUST
MAKE THAT POINT?

Banta:

Certainly. The
canisterized missile allows us to adapt to the missile and the launch system to a variety of
basing modes, for instance the rail garrison mode that is proposed, the canisterized missile
could be put on a rail car with very little change to the launch system. It also made it very
adaptable to the silo system, and in fact any of the systems that were being proposed back in
the late '70s and early '80s. The canisterized concept stayed with us and was adaptable to all
of those different systems.